Living in Faith
Apologies for the poor sound quality on the recording.
We’re deep into this sermon series now. We called it Back to Basics, with Jesus January behind us, Faith February where we are now and Mission March to come. All of it mapping onto the topics being discussed by our guests at Alpha, and all of it aimed at helping us to go deeper into the fundamentals of what it is to be a Christian.
And today, living in faith. In a sense, it’s the heart of the whole series - what does it mean to live a life of faith? What does it mean to be an everyday Christian? A Christian whose faith shapes the whole of life, not just an hour on Sunday.
And I’m going to suggest that ‘living in faith’ means knowing about three things: where we start, where we are heading and then - and only then - what happens in between. And the beginning and ending really matter, because they define what happens in between - it’s like a * straight line. A straight line always runs between two points. To really live in faith, in all the depth and beauty that it offers, means knowing those two points - our beginning and our destination. Once we know them, we can get on and walk the journey of faith along the path that lies between the two.
So, first, the beginning of faith.
We sometimes think of faith as being a choice we make - I choose to believe in God and that’s faith. And of course there’s truth in that. We do have to make a decision at some point. But that’s not where faith starts. * The bible says that faith, first of all, is God’s faithfulness to us. It is the heart of God’s character, that he is faithful. It’s in so many bible verses that it’s impossible to pick just one. God….is…..faithful.
And because he is faithful, he fulfilled his promise to restore the world, and to reset our lives. And so Jesus came to live, die and live again that we might be set free. So that we might start again.
Romans 5:8 - ‘God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.’
That’s the beginning of faith - that’s what makes faith possible. That God is faithful, and by His faithfulness he sent Jesus to die for us. He made a choice for us first of all - and now we can make a choice for him.
Faith is a gift before it’s a decision.
That matters because it means faith isn’t something we have to screw up our eyes and believe. Faith is more like stepping into a truth, or putting on new glasses and seeing what was already there.
When Martha, our number 3 daughter was 6, just after we moved to Goudhurst, she had hearing aids fitted. And on the way home from the clinic, in the car, she asked Lizzie, ‘Mum, what’s that ticking noise?’ It was the indicators! She had never heard them before, even though they had been ticking away every time she traveled in a car. And now she could hear them. Faith is like that. Faith is saying yes to what really is. Saying yes to what God has done for us.
We don’t choose to have faith. We choose to say yes to God’s faithfulness to us, to say yes to God’s love for us.
Ok, from the beginning, to the end.
If faith starts with God’s never-ending, ever present, love for us, the other key point is where we’re heading.
In his letter to the Philippians, St Paul writes 'I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.’
Our goal, our prize, our destination, is God. Our direction is to join the never ending flow of love that moves between Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and which the whole of creation is invited to be part of. We call it heaven, but that too easily limits our imagination - as if we’re born, we live and then we go to a kind of plush hotel in the sky. Our destination is union with God in Christ Jesus. Our destination is love, a complete embrace. Total immersion. Wholeness. We press on towards the goal of gazing upon the face of Jesus and knowing what has always been true, as if for the first time. Knowing that we are completely, utterly and totally loved.
One of the nice things about leaving a church community like this, which has been such a happy home, is that people say nice things. And someone said to me this week - ‘what’s it like to be so loved?’ And the answer is, it’s wonderful. Really. And I thought - that’s a question we should be asking each other - and every Christian. What’s it like to be so, so loved?
Not, loved in theory, but really, actually and completely loved. Because that’s the truth. You are loved.
And that’s our destination. To be fully and completely caught up in God’s love.
In his famous passage on love from 1 Corinthians 13 - the one often read at weddings - St Paul writes * ’We know only in part….but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end…For now we see in a mirror darkly, but then we shall see face to face. Now I know only in part then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now, faith, hope and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love’
We are loved now, and one day - at our journeys end - we will know God’s love fully. And not just us, but the whole of creation. Everything and everyone. That’s our destination.
The beginning of faith is God’s faith in us, embodied in Jesus death and resurrection. Our destination is to know God’s love completely. And life is lived in between.
And so our call is to arrange our lives around those two truths. To live in faith, is to walk a path from God to God. Secure in where we come from and clear about where we’re going. We have come from love, and we are heading to love. And so everything we do in between needs to be arranged around that truth. And I mean everything.
A life of faith subjects everything to those truths; the choices we make about work, family and money. How we spend our time. How we use our resources and the earth’s resources. How we relate to each other. What we consider valuable, what we consider worthwhile. We are invited, as people of faith, to arrange all of it around God’s love for us and the world.
That’s why Jesus tells us to be ‘salt and light’. To bring out the flavour of the world and to shine as beacons of hope and service. That’s why we are all invited to give generously of our time and money and talents. That’s why we cannot stand by where we see injustice or poverty. That’s why we pay attention our own behaviour, and repent of the ways we hurt people around us. Because we know that love is the beginning and the end, and so everything in between needs to be ordered, and where necessary re-ordered, around that truth.
Here’s a question for you to ponder on this week.
If your beginning is love and your ending is love, and life is everything in between. And if you are called to arrange your life around those two truths, what needs to change in your life? What needs to be re-arranged at the moment?
Alpha and Omega, beginning and end, from love, to love - living in faith is everything in between.
Amen
Going deeper
Where do you think faith starts?
What does it mean to say that ‘God is faithful’?
In what ways do you ‘say yes to God’s love for you’? In what ways do you not say ‘yes’?
If your beginning is love and your ending is love, and life is everything in between. And if you are called to arrange your life around those two truths, what needs to change in your life? What needs to be re-arranged at the moment?